This invention relates to apparatus for moving a carriage along a ladder.
At present, an apparatus for automatically climbing up and down stairs is used a crawler, but as far as we are aware no apparatus has been developed that can automatically climb up and down a ladder or a like structure.
In a nuclear power plant, for the purpose of decreasing the danger of an operator from being exposed to radioactive rays, maintenance and inspection of the plant are made by a remotely controlled robot. In a nuclear power plant, there are many vertical or inclined ladders but presently used robots cannot climb up and down the ladders so that it is impossible to inspect or repair machines and apparatus installed at such positions in the plant unless the robot climbs up or down the ladders. For this reason, inspection and repair of the machines and apparatus installed at such dangerous positions must be made by the operator.
In order to enable a main body or carriage carrying a television camera, a robot, inspecting or repairing apparatus or the like to move along a ladder, it is necessary to provide for the carriage gripping means corresponding to hands and feet of a human being which are alternately operated to grip the ledges of the ladder.